At the July 24 meeting of the ad hoc Parking Study Committee, Jennifer Belton, chair of the committee, handed off the task of implementing the new parking system--extending paid parking the entire length of Warren Street and replacing parking meters with payment kiosks--to Chief Mishanda Franklin of the Hudson Police Department and Doreen Danforth, who runs the Hudson Parking Bureau. What Belton apparently didn't realize was that she was handing off responsibility for dealing with a serious snafu, which may go down in history as the Great Hudson Kiosk Fiasco.
It seems the sixteen kiosks the City purchased for $136,000 (and took delivery of back in February) do not accept paper money. They only accept coins--quarters, just like our antiquated parking meters. For people who do not wish to download the app and pay with a credit card or PayPal or Venmo or Apple Pay or whatever and incur a service charge--for people who simply want to pay the parking fee with cash and have done with it--the only option is to feed quarters into the kiosk, just as they did when there were parking meters. The only difference is, instead of the parking meter being right beside or in front of their car, they will have to walk some distance to the kiosk and enter their license plate number before inserting their quarters.
Hudseen, which is much more focused on things that go wrong in Hudson than Gossips is, reported on the situation almost two weeks ago: "Word on the Sidewalk Is . . ." How the situation will be resolved is not at all clear, but might this be yet another argument for why we need a city manager? COPYRIGHT 2025 CAROLE OSTERINK
Also, you would be surprised to know many people don't know their license plate number. They usually find that out when they reach the machine, then they have to walk back to their car, then back to the machine to insert payment.
ReplyDeleteI needed a good laugh. Sure hope Ms Belton is hanging her head.
ReplyDeleteI attended exactly one parking study committee meeting in person, about one year ago. When my turn came to speak, I told Belton and the other members what was so obvious to any reasonable person paying attention to what they were doing: they were going about their efforts all wrong by putting their "horse before the cart" by not first creating a competent and fully staffed Parking Bureau before moving forward with the purchasing of the kiosks and the plans for them. The last thing I was able to say before Belton angrily cut me off was this: "YOUR EFFORTS WILL FAIL!" She wanted none of it, telling me that I didn't know anything about what they were doing. It is becoming increasingly clear the longer the kiosks on the sidewalks remain covered in plastic that no one on that committee knew what they were doing, they never should have been allowed to do any of what they did (especially being able to spend so much tax revenue on kiosks, the consultant, signs, etc), and that this is going to be a huge waste of money and embarrassing headache for Mishanda Franklin and, I hope, Kamal Johnson. Someone has to answer for this, but it won't be Jen Belton.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the $136,000 cost of the kiosks, per the Minutes of the Parking Committe, there was an additional cost of $1,800 shipping that had not been included initally and $15,438.24 to remodel a space for the Parking Bureau at the Police Station.
ReplyDeleteNever revealed is the cost of the consultant , who should have caught this ghastly, costly error.
Is this the "if it ain't broke don't fix it " department of Hudson ? This goes with the the Hudson Lofts and Workforce housing concept in which the solution is worse than the original problem.
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